This invention relates to a label and in particular to a label in the form of a sheet (e.g. a sheet of printed instrutions) and an envelope therefor.
It is frequently desirable to be able to attach a sheet of printed instructions to a product, and to avoid soiling of the sheet during handling of the product or loss of the sheet during such handling, it is desirable that the sheet should be enclosed in an envelope and held from falling out. If the means for holding the sheet can be made such as to require a non-repeatable action to remove the sheet from the envelope, they will afford an indication of unauthorised tampering.
In my British Pat. No. 1475304 there is described and claimed a sheet (e.g. of printed instructions) and an envelope therefor both formed from a single folded sheet, e.g. of paper, the single sheet being divided into at least two parallel rows of three rectilinear panels each, the two outer panels of a first row being separated from the corresponding two outer panels of the next row by cuts and the middle panels of the said first and next rows being joined to one another through a line of perforations aligned with the cuts, the single sheet being so folded that the panels of the first row form the envelope and the sheet, e.g. of instructions, is composed of the panels of the next row and of any further rows which are folded to lie adjacent one face of the middle panel of the first row, whereby the sheet, e.g., of instructions, is enclosed in the envelope but can be removed and detached therefrom by tearing along the line of perforations.
I found that the sheet and envelope described in my British Pat. No. 1475304 can suffer from the disadvantage, particularly if the resultant envelope is over a certain size, that when the sheet of instructions is first pulled out of the envelope and the said line of perforations has to be torn apart, quite often before the line of perforations will tear, the sheet of instructions pulls upwardly that part of the sheet which forms the lower part of the envelope. This causes the envelope to become buckled and misaligned so that re-introduction of the sheet of instructions into the envelope can be difficult, if not impossible.
I susbequently developed a modified sheet and envelope arrangement which overcame that disadvantage. British Pat. Specification No. 2115744 accordingly provided a sheet and an envelope therefor, both formed from a single folded sheet, wherein the single sheet is divided into at least two parallel rows of three rectilinear panels each, the panels of the first row being separated from the corresponding panels of the next row by a line of perforations and each of the two outer panels of the first row of panels having a portion cut away inwardly from the respective outer edge of the sheet adjacent the line of perforations so that the line of perforations stops short of the outer edges of the sheet, the single sheet being so folded that the panels of the first row form the envelope, and the sheet of instructions is composed of the panels of the next row and of any further rows which are folded to lie adjacent one face of the corresponding panels of the first row, whereby the sheet is enclosed in the envelope but can be removed and detached therefrom by tearing along the line of perforations.
However the label disclosed in my British Pat. Specification No. 2115744 suffers from the disadvantage that the sheet must be die-cut in order to form the cut away portions. The die cutting step is a separate process step which tends to reduce the rate of production of the labels and accordingly increases the unit cost of the labels.